A Tigray internet blackout has returned to northern Ethiopia, cutting phones, mobile money and web access as fighting between Tigrayan forces and the federal military escalates. NetBlocks confirmed an internet disruption across the north on Friday 25 September. Techpoint Africa’s Monday digest still describes the region as under a communications blackout.
Who ordered the cuts is disputed. Four people with knowledge of the matter, including a diplomatic source, told Reuters that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) instructed Safaricom’s Ethiopian subsidiary and state-owned Ethio telecom to shut their networks. The TPLF did not respond to Reuters. A source close to the group denied responsibility and blamed the federal government. TechMoonshot has not independently verified either account.
The operators themselves have said nothing. Spokespeople for Ethio telecom, Safaricom’s Ethiopian unit and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Why a Network Shutdown Hits Money First
The reports also disagree on what still works. Reuters found calls to Ethio telecom numbers failing on Friday, with only limited connectivity for Safaricom customers. The BBC, citing local reports, described Ethio telecom as completely cut while Safaricom stayed operational. A Mekelle resident told Reuters that Safaricom worked only in patches, forcing people to move around to find a signal.
Cash is the pressure point. Residents told Reuters that Ethio telecom stopped working late on Thursday, cutting off mobile money transfers. The BBC reported that most people in the region use those two networks for banking and payment apps. One Mekelle resident told the BBC that almost no cash remained in the city.
Ethio telecom is more than a phone company. It runs the telebirr platform, which already powers payments at the operator’s ultra-fast EV charging station. When the network goes dark, the payment layer goes with it. That is why the blackout arrived on top of a week of panic-buying and cash withdrawals.
The Drone Theory and the Operators’ Silence
One Reuters source suggested the TPLF cut mobile networks to deny federal forces a battlefield advantage from drones. Reuters reported that the military holds large stocks of imported and domestically made drones and has used them against targets in Tigray since last month. The TPLF is not known to have deployed any. The drone explanation rests on a single source and remains unconfirmed.
It raises harder questions for the operators. Who instructed them to cut service, and under what authority? Did they resist, and did they warn customers? Neither Ethio telecom nor Safaricom’s Ethiopian unit has answered. For a state-owned carrier and a foreign-owned competitor, silence leaves millions of subscribers guessing.
A Familiar Pattern in Ethiopia
Tigray has been here before. During the 2020 to 2022 war, the federal government severed communications, and access to food, cash and medicine collapsed, according to Reuters. Access Now said in 2022 that Ethiopia had shut down the internet at least 22 times since 2016. Aid workers and rights groups argued at the time that the blackout hampered relief and encouraged abuses.
The current escalation is broader. Techpoint reports that the TPLF joined six other armed groups on 21 September in an alliance calling for Abiy’s removal. Fighting has since spread across Tigray, Amhara and Afar.
Technology offers partial workarounds at best. Satellite-to-phone services such as Airtel’s Starlink rollout in Uganda are pitched as a way to stay reachable when towers fail. But they run through local operators and need national approval, and Uganda’s licensing standoff with Starlink showed how much control regulators keep. A shutdown ordered at the operator level would test that model.
What to Watch Next
Independent confirmation of who ordered the cuts comes first. Then watch whether mobile money and banking apps return, and whether Ethio telecom or Safaricom’s Ethiopian unit explain what they were told to do.
Until service returns, the Tigray internet blackout leaves families, aid workers and journalists without a reliable view of what is happening on the ground.
